It is possible that an auto-answer feature on you wife's pc is
interfering.  Certainly her modem is "hearing" your call, and
doing something that interferes with the call's connection.
I have been unable to resolve this with some brands of modems.
If it turns out that there is no software behind the trouble, you
should investigate her modem's ROM settings for carrier detect,
etc.  Sometimes a setting in one of the modem's registers that
tells it to ignore a signal, or force a signal high, will cause the
modem to react like a call is in progress, even though it didn't
initiate the call.  So it sees the state of the line change, and it
joins in on your call.  I have found the setting to change in the
manual for the modem in question.
There is also a small chance that the power on the phone line is
insufficient to run two devices, or there is a problem in your wiring.
I have seen this with four devices, and with two display phones,
but I think it is a very small chance for you.
Tom Turak

Wednesday, February 24, 1999 11:37 AM Robert Cunningham wrote:

............Her dial up connection to our ISP is
on our second, dedicated PC phone line.
My PC is also connected to the second dedicated line.
In other words, from the second phone service box outside,
I have two phone lines going to both computers. Our
computers are not networked together (yet).

I have discovered I cannot connect to my ISP from my PC when
her PC is on, though her dial up connection is terminated.

Robert Cunningham

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